When your flight home from a fishing trip is delayed, all you can do is sit and hope that your rod tube will make it in one piece

Our return trip from El Salto was scheduled for an otherwise innocuous weekend that turned out to be one of the worst travel experiences of our lives. We were ticketed home on American Airlines, leaving three hours to transfer our bodies and our luggage in Dallas, but we unknowingly stumbled into a minefield --- American, needing to train pilots on new aircraft coming out of the COVID travel slowdown, canceled over 400 flights and we were caught up in the chaos.

Everything started as planned. We left Lake El Salto four hours before our flight was due to depart, which would allow us to check in two hours before takeoff. We arrived on time, and except for an unusually slow check-in process, which we attributed to ongoing COVID document checks, we sensed no problems until American pinged our phones: our flight was being delayed. No problem. With the lengthy layover in Dallas, we’d still make our connection. We settled in for lunch with our friends Aaron and Kristine (headed to Dallas, like us) and Dale and Kim (traveling home through Phoenix).

Ping. Delayed again.

No explanation, other than that the incoming flight from Dallas had not arrived.

Finally the plane showed, several hours late. We made it to our seats and if all went as planned we’d be in Dallas with nearly 90 minutes to deplane, go through customs, collect our luggage, recheck it, and take the sky tram to another terminal. Indeed, we had less time than that when we landed, but still enough to make it if everything else went smoothly. Of course it did not. It’s always a long hike to the customs station, but Hanna pumped those short little legs and we made it quickly. Thanks to our Global Entry membership, reentry was a breeze. We made it to the luggage station with probably 45 or 50 minutes to spare. Usually on this flight our luggage is waiting for us by the time we get downstairs, but this time it was not. Hanna positioned herself at the carousel to collect our two checked bags, and I stood among the surfers at the oversized luggage door to wait for the rod tube.

The waiting seemed interminable. I stayed in touch with her via phone, but even from a distance I could see that the carousel had not started to move. Finally, at 7:40, with our flight due to take off at 7:50, we got our stuff and headed toward the doors. There was no way we’d make the connection so we headed to the rebooking counter, beating much but not all of our fellow delayed travelers.

Fortunately, people were mostly in a good mood, so the time wasn’t unbearable. We figured they’d give us meal vouchers, put us up in a hotel and we’d catch an early flight to either DCA or IAD in the morning. That’s one advantage of living where we do – we have multiple airport options with lots of incoming flights. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the counter, there weren’t seats on ANY Sunday flights into the two DC area airports. Our ticket agent was friendly and patient, but a little slow. He finally found a route that would take us to Indianapolis on Saturday night, and then from Indy to DC on Sunday. Unfortunately, he couldn’t figure out how to recheck the rod tube, and by the time he got a supervisor’s help we’d missed the opportunity to go to Indianapolis.

Still, he stuck with the process and found another, more creative route: He could get us on a 9:50 flight to Jackson, Mississippi, and then a direct flight from Jackson at 5am in the morning. It would put us in Jackson close to midnight, and we’d need to be back no later than 4am, so Hanna and I pretty much conceded that we’d let the hotel voucher go to waste. By the time we collected one in Jackson, took a shuttle or cab there, and checked in, we’d only have a couple of hours to sleep before riding back to the airport. We could grab a few Z’s in the gate area. Not ideal, but better than nothing. We headed to the gate to get seat assignments, at which point we learned that this flight too had been delayed. Now we’d be taking off around 11pm and arriving in Jackson after midnight. Still, we got seats (including an exit row for me – first good news of the night!) and then took our meal vouchers to get something to eat. By this time most of the dining establishments were closed, but we grabbed a halfway decent barbecue dinner (our meal vouchers covered less than half of it) and enjoyed each other’s company.

When we got back to the gate (pro traveler hint: avoid baked beans or broccoli rice casserole if you don’t want to torture the people around you) the flight had been delayed again. We waited and waited and Hanna wisely told me to get ready to go to the gate as she had a premonition that this flight too would be canceled. Indeed, it eventually was, and I was the third or fourth person in line to rebook. Within minutes, the line was 50 deep.

When the desk agent called me up, she started to look through flight options and I once again offered her the option of DCA or IAD. Remember, we’d been told earlier that there were NO SEATS on DC-bound flights the next day, so we should be prepared to stay over and fly on Monday. Yet it seemed that this woman had superhuman powers, because in just five minutes she found us two seats on a 7:15am direct flight to DCA. Miracle worker! “Are you sure?” I asked multiple times. Each time she answered in the affirmative. It took longer than expected, but eventually she printed them out and assured me that our luggage would follow us.

An exit row seat is a little bit of solace when your flight has been delayed or canceled several times

I left Hanna with the carry-on bags and the tickets and went to take a much-needed leak, and when I got back she’d cut the line to go back to the desk. At this point, the woman who’d “helped” us was gone, but Hanna corralled someone else. She’d looked closely at the tickets and realized that we were now STANDBY on the Sunday morning flight. There was no guarantee that we were going home at all, despite assurances to the contrary. After a few minutes of conversing with this agent (I might’ve lost my cool a bit, at which point Hanna wisely told me to step away and I complied), we realized that our best option was indeed to try the standby route, and to hope for the best on Sunday. We took our hotel vouchers and headed to where the courtesy vans pulled up.

After a long slog to the van stand, we called the Holiday Inn, who not only informed us that they had no vans, but also that they had no rooms. Once again, American had screwed us. We went back inside, found one American employee headed home after her shift, and she kindly agreed to help us. She got on the phone with the Holiday Inn, they somehow managed to find a room, and she also printed out taxi vouchers. Once out at the cab stand, taxis were slow to arrive. There was a woman from the canceled Jackson flight in tears. They told her that she wouldn’t make it home until Monday and she was despondent because her babysitter was leaving in the morning. We comforted her and invited her to share our cab since our hotel was on the way to hers.

If you’ve never stayed near the Dallas airport, it’s easy to assume that most of the hotels will be nearby. Many are not. Indeed, there’s a Hyatt in the airport, and another across the street, but beyond that most are a substantial distance away. Fifteen minutes into our drive, the cab driver got off the highway and went right by a Holiday Inn. At first I assumed there might be another Holiday Inn further down the road, but then I reconsidered and asked our driver if we’d missed the turnoff. He pulled into a gas station, checked his location, and sure enough we had to backtrack to our hotel.

Once inside, it took a few minutes to get checked in and get to our room. We were asleep shortly after midnight. Hanna reserved a taxi for 5am the next morning and we set our alarms for 4:30 (her) and 4:45 (me). She was up before hers went off.

If you're going to stay sane when flying American Airlines, you may need an emotional support animal

Since we had standby boarding passes we weren’t sure if we’d need to go to the counter to check-in. We entered by the Priority check-in, which had no line, but the agent outside the line-up area rudely told us we’d need to go to the economy check-in down the hall, where not surprisingly the line was several hundred deep. Fortunately, a kindly agent at that end told us that we didn’t need to wait – we could just go through security and head to the gate, saving us an hour of wasted time. Arriving at the gate, we learned that we were number one and number two on the standby list, subject to being bumped from those positions only by people with higher AA status than us. Things looked promising, but based on the way everything had gone so far we weren’t taking anything for granted. We agreed that if only one of us got on, she would take the ticket and go pick up the dog and I’d get home whenever I could. Fortunately, it didn’t come to that. At least five standby passengers made it on the DCA-bound plane, and I even got my exit row seat. The flight was uneventful.

Of course, that couldn’t be the end of it. We arrived in DC but our luggage did not. Hanna filed the claim and we headed home to nap before taking my father out for Father’s Day. One bag arrived that night in the back of a full-sized pickup truck. Another arrived Monday night and was dropped at the door. I then received a call on Monday saying that the delivery service could not deliver the rod tube, as it was too big to fit in their vehicle. I pointed out to the American Airlines rep that: (a) it clearly could have fit in the Dodge Ram that delivered my bag on Monday; and (b) I had a contract with AA, not the delivery company. They vowed to get back to me. On Tuesday night, they called with the same information. I made the same rebuttals. On Wednesday, I spent an hour on the phone with a very helpful American Airlines agent. She tried to call the delivery company and the DCA baggage office and could not get through to find out more information. Eventually, at 11:58 pm on Wednesday (84 hours after we landed) I was awoken out of an unhealthily deep sleep by a delivery driver at my front door with the tube. It was the same guy from Sunday night, who kept saying, “I don’t know why they wouldn’t release it.” I just wanted to go back to bed. I opened the tube Thursday morning and everything seemed to be in place.

Ultimately, except for the lost day and the persisting tiredness, it might seem like we’re not out a huge amount so far (pending the return of the rod tube) – tips to the cab drivers, the balance of the cost of dinner at DFW, an extra day of parking at DCA, an extra day at the dogsitter – it adds up to over a hundred bucks. I guess that’s the price you pay for bargain fares when the airlines have you by the short hairs and don’t give a damn. The problem is that with limited flights to Mazatlan (and a strong desire to go back) there’s not much we can do to fight it.

Oddly enough, on Monday afternoon we were still getting messages from AA about our flights to and from Jackson. I hope that when we didn’t show up for them some deserving and tired travelers who were listed as standby got a pleasant surprise.

Biggest Disappointment: Look, these things happen. Whether it’s due to weather, mechanical issues (do you really want to fly on a plane that’s likely to suffer problems midair?) or even the airline’s own incompetence, delays and cancellations are part of travel. For some reason they seem to be especially prevalent and on the Dallas-to-Mazatlan and Mazatlan-to-Dallas routes. With the exception of an evening flight from Birmingham to DC that I’ve had majorly screwed up on two occasions, American Airlines has otherwise been pretty good to me. The issue for me is how a business deals with their failings. Do they take responsibility? Do they try to earn your business going forward? In this case American failed horribly. On multiple occasions we were asked why we missed our connection, with the clear implication being that it was our fault. On several occasions when we were unfailingly polite, we had AA employees snarl at us or give us attitude.

If your sports baggage like fishing rod tube gets delayed or lost by the airline, be patient and persistent and know your rights for replacement or compensation.

Lessons Learned and Relearned:

Get the App: Any time you’re flying, it pays to have the relevant airline’s app on your phone. In the first instance, it’ll keep you reasonably updated with changed departure times, changed gates, rebooking and the like better than an airline’s agent. Sometimes it’s better to get on the phone than to wait in line, but in this case (with 400+ flights delayed) that would’ve been equally futile.

Get Global Entry: If you travel internationally, Global Entry can be a godsend. The Customs lines were not long at DFW this time around, but in the past we’ve seen it where the main line is a 30-60 minute wait and the Global Entry portal is less than 2 minutes. It can be the difference between making your connection and missing it.

Get the airline app, but don't be surprised if it delivers disappointing news

Get in Line: One of the biggest timesavers on this trip was when it appeared that the flight from DFW to Jackson was going to get canceled and Hanna advised me to linger by the desk. When the announcement came, I was able to jump in line immediately. If I’d been two minutes later, it might’ve cost me 30 to 45 minutes more waiting time.

Check the Paperwork: I should have confirmed that our flights to DCA were actually ticketed rather than standby. I should have confirmed that the hotel had a shuttle service operating at that late hour. I didn’t and we found out the former through Hanna’s detective work and the latter only after we’d trudged down to the courtesy van station. Read everything over twice while you’re standing person-to-person and ask even what seem like dumb questions.

It Doesn’t Hurt to Ask: If they’re going to delay you (or deny you the rental car you’ve reserved, etc.) ask for the compensation. In this case, we were entitled to hotels and meal vouchers and we got them. Our friends Aaron and Kristine booked a nonrefundable hotel room while we were waiting in line and cost themselves over a hundred bucks. After the fact, check your rights on the airline’s website and if you’re entitled to further compensation for lost/delayed baggage or other inconveniences, be a stickler about getting it.

Be Flexible: When plans fall apart, you can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We have two airport options -- DCA and Dulles – and I made it clear that either would be fine with us. Don’t get hung up on only business class tickets or sitting together with your spouse if that will prevent you from getting home sooner. If your flight to Birmingham is canceled, in some cases it might make sense to hop on one of the plentiful flights to Atlanta and rent a car to get home sooner (be sure to check that rental cars are available and affordable, of course).

Time is Valuable: When you’re searching for solutions, try to streamline your questions and processes and not get hung up on meaningless details. When we were going to be rescheduled to fly through Indianapolis, we knew that there was a group of 20 students behind us in line with Indy as their final destination. We needed to ask appropriate questions, but if we dawdled too long those seats would be gone.

Don’t Take “No” For an Answer (Unless It’s Self-Defeating): With my luggage, I insisted that American get all three pieces (including the rod tube) to my house, despite their protests that it was too burdensome. I stayed firm and they delivered them. But what if I’d needed the rods two days earlier? I wouldn’t have had room to fight. It would have made more sense to swallow my pride and find an alternate solution.

Stay Calm: OK, not my strong suit, but yelling typically doesn’t accomplish much. Whatever situation you’re in is typically not the fault of the person you’re dealing with, and they’re taking crap from all sides. Remember, right now flight crews are getting harassed over mask requirements and things like that, so there’s low tolerance for your shit, even if it’s justified. Fortunately, Hanna typically realizes when I’m about to lose it and pushes me away, and vice versa.

Consider Insurance: Travel insurance, like most insurance, is something you hope you never have to use, but in some cases it might reimburse you for expenses that the airline or other travel providers won’t. Some credit cards also provide travel protections and reimbursements. Again, know what you’re entitled to and don’t be afraid to ask.

Shit Happens: Unfortunately, as consumers we are subject to the whims and inefficiencies of the big companies more than we’d like to admit, and that’s likely to be particularly pronounced as we return from the pandemic and things like rental cars and pilots continue to be in short supply.

One Final Note: In most cases, I’d rather have this happen to me on the way home from a vacation than on the way there. If you’re getting on a float plane or a houseboat into the Amazon and you’re delayed, you may lose the whole vacation. Even if that’s not the case, who wants to miss a day of fishing? In this instance we were lucky that we had planned to come home on Saturday instead of our normal practice of stretching the vacation through Sunday – that meant we didn’t miss Father’s Day or any work because of American’s failures.